About ellehank

Elle Hankinson is a London based fashion, arts and culture journalist, who has worked on brands from Paul Smith to Prism, and is a regular contributor to publications including WGSN. com and The Observer's O Magazine. To contact me please email ellehank@hotmail.com

15.11.10

I've long been a fan of leather label Fleet Ilya, and every season I covet another of the label's structured bags and accessories. Inspired by sculpture and saddlery, the pieces toy with bondage connotations and feature industrial details.

3.11.10

These posters have been popping up a lot recently. I’ve viewed them individually and admired their simplicity and charm, but en masse they serve as a witty dialogue of two iconic cities, as well as a visual cultural guide. See www.parisvsnyc.blogspot.com for more

2.11.10

I finally got round to watching Kayne West's venture in to the film world. Runaway is the story of a phoenix who comes crashing down to earth in a ball of beautifully burning flames and lands all leggy-limbed in front of West’s swanky car.

The pair fall in love and West trys to get the pheonix to adapt to life on earth. West’s course in etiquette echoes Pretty Woman - but without the charm, and the result is purely patronizing. Only topped when, in the next scene he climbs atop a piano and watches over a flock of ‘black but white’ swan ballerinas.

Perhaps I’m taking it too seriously though. While West may be a minor megalomaniac he certainly pushes boundaries, and this film is unarguably aesthetically stunning. Oh and the soundtrack’s pretty good too!

Written by Hype Williams and starring Victoria’s Secret model Selita Ebanks - as well as the man himself. The film is art directed is by Vanessa Beecroft and has the Hype stamp all over it – candy colours and kitsch styling. Costumes are by Martin Izquierdo and Phillip Lim.

It’s certainly a short film rather than the long music video I’d been lead to expect, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Now I don’t want to sound like a sissy, but there are few designers whose clothes I long to wear as much as Alber Elbaz’s creations for Lanvin. So knowing that his creative flair is soon to be applied to a capsule diffusion-of- a-diffusion collection for H&M fills me with a certain amount of joy and anticipation.

Yes I know that the taffeta won’t crunch they way it would on a couture piece, nor will the draping be as overtly voluptuous as that of the dresses he creates for the catwalk, but I don’t care. I’m intrigued to see how the limitations of fabric budgets etc will affect Elbaz relaying his signature style

Celebrity clothing lines really don’t do it for me, but there have been a few designer diffusions that have interested me - namely Viktor & Rolf for H&M and Jil Sander for Uniqlo. The question is, do I love it enough to get my elbows out against all those others who want a piece of the couture pie?!

31.10.10

This weekend I’ve been reading about American artist Taryn Simon’s latest photography work – Contraband.

The series of 1000 photographs documents contraband seized by US Customs officers at JFK airport, from both travelling passengers and recorded mail between November 16th and November 20th 2009.

In order to complete the work, Simon was granted access in to the ‘no mans land’ that lies between American and foreign soil, where goods are seized and inspected, and spent five days and nights photographing items as they arrived.

The objects found vary – from the scary to the surreal. My personal favourites are a plastic water bottle full of congealed fat, (animal origin unknown). To a bag of hundreds of duck tongues - probably to be used in alternative medicine.

Simon’s work can be viewed as a study of early 21st century global experience, and simultaneously a critique on Western society’s greed for goods. I love the clinical starkness the grey backdrop, it makes every object seem more bizarre. Also the sheer audacity of passengers attempting to carry such bizarre items.

24.10.10

Last week I was part of a focus group in preparation for the forthcoming International Woman’s Day, to be held on March 8th 2011.

International Women's Day is one day devoted to highlighting the economic, political and social achievements of women internationally. It is celebrated as a national holiday in countries including China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, but in the UK it is still to realise its epic potential and importance.

The evening was spent brainstorming manifestos, marketing and priorities for the UK audience. It was interesting for me to consider my own priorities and interests for the IWD manifesto, but even more interesting was hearing those of the women around me. They were all so different, and the evening made me aware of what it is to be a woman, what feminism is (or could be) today, and how important it is that we reflect and celebrate what we are.

The Germaine Greer days have passed, and statutorily woman – in the UK at least, now have equal rights; but there’s still a place for feminism. It’s just a redefined and rebranded version, and I really hope that next years IWD will help to disclose what this new brand is.